It was meant to be a compliment, apparently, but it came off as Bill Clinton telling everyone that Obama was clueless on what to do about the economic crisis.
Here’s the original story and the quote:
“I haven’t cleared this with him and he may even be mad at me for saying this so close to the election, but I know what else he said to his economic advisers (during the crisis),” Clinton told the crowd at a Wednesday night rally with Obama in Florida. “He said, ‘Tell me what the right thing to do is. What’s the right thing for America? Don’t tell me what’s popular. You tell me what’s right — I’ll figure out how to sell it.'”
Yup, seems like he’s saying Obama was clueless on the economic situation and had to go to the Clintons (and others) for help. The part where Obama tells Clinton “you tell me what’s right — I’ll figure out how to sell it” sounds especially bad. Makes him sound like an empty suit, does it not?
Or maybe he sounds more like a used car salesman? You tell me…
UPDATE: here’s video of it, the key part comes at 8:25:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RC-9PgJfJIw
UPDATE: Hot air and Free Republic link to my post.
Allah Pundit at Hot air makes a good point. Yes, practically nobody knew what to do about the economic crisis so this shouldn’t be a huge deal except imagine if a senior republican had said the same thing about Sarah Palin (or John McCain for that matter)…
Also consider how strongly Obama has attacked McCain for supposedly not understanding the economy.
MORE FROM BUBBA UPDATE: During the same speech in which he dropped the backhanded gem above he also said this (The quote is at of the video posted above):
“He has executed this campaign in a way that is different from modern and forward thinking — something no one else ever could have done. He can be the chief executor of good intentions as president.”
I’m not sure what to make of it… but it sure is interesting.
Watching the video it looks like the part where he says that Obama’s campaign is different from modern and forward thinking ones was a screw up becuase he doesn’t finish that point and just jumps into the end. I think he was trying to say that Obama’s campaign was different from other campaigns that have come before.
The part that confuses me is the “He can be the chief executor of good intentions as president”. Is he really trying to say that we should vote for him because he has lots of good intentions? I don’t know, in context it seems as though Clinton is trying to say that we should vote for Obama because he has done a good job running his own campaign… However, that doesn’t sound any better than the whole good inetentions thing anyway.
But here is the video of it so you can decide for yourself:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rq-892g9qLQ
